Rangers fell to a disappointing but predictable defeat tonight at the hands of the frankly rather ordinary Braga.
Ibrox Noise brings you our scores for the players:
McGregor:
Didn’t shine. Didn’t make any major saves and was beaten all ends up twice, one for the disallowed goal. This wasn’t one of his great Euro nights unfortunately. 5
Tavernier:
Wasteful with set plays and crossing has REALLY tumbled in recent weeks, the captain struggled to be heard and struggled even to attack with much impact. 5
Goldson:
As per usual, blaming everyone else, Goldson made one good block but was otherwise quiet and just doing his job. His passing was loose. 5
Balogun:
His injury troubles catching up with him and he was done for pace and trickery a couple of times – he and Goldson struggled to contain Braga’s attacking and it wasn’t a duo which really worked tonight. 5
Bassey:
Tackled a lot and was hard working. Offered zero at the end other end, but then generally doesn’t. 6
Lundstram:
He was again decent enough, plenty of excellent long passes with that vision of his and no one completed with a higher level of accuracy, but his hands feel tied these days because the team isn’t functioning around him. Adapted fine to defence again. 6
Kamara:
Kind of invisible. Ever since the racism scandal Kamara’s been completely AWOL. Actually added very little tonight. 4
Jack:
He was ok, nothing more. Really isn’t playing at the level we know he can. Has been like this for weeks. 5
Kent:
Never stops working out there and made things happen for Rangers. Lacked killer product but no one can accuse him of not trying. Got some joy down the left. 6
Arfield:
Just isn’t at his best right now, not unsurprisingly. The ex-Canada man keeps working but he’s another victim of the team’s malaise at present. 5
Sakala:
He’s getting abuse for not being Morelos. We’d label more criticism at his manager for replacing Morelos with him and more or less trying to make him play the same game. In reality, he causes danger when he runs, and he didn’t shirk trying to cause damage. But he was being used a Morelos replacement and winger in one, and in the end he was neither. 5
Subs:
Aribo:
Didn’t impact the match much but the tactical change involving him did improve the team a fair bit. He was decent. 6
Barisic:
Give him his dues, he defended clean and managed a 50% crossing accuracy. He certainly wasn’t lacking in confidence tonight. 6
Roofe:
Added a bit of gumption to things even if his finishing was awry. 6
Manager:
Gio was on a hiding to nothing. He got the news about Alfie only a few days ago and had to either change the system or try to make the existing one work without him. In truth, Rangers weren’t horrible tonight, the defending was porous and attack really missed the Colombian but we’ve seen worse from our team at this level before. Should he have changed the system? Maybe. But Gio is in a state of limbo along with the side. Stick or twist. 6
Im really starting to worry that we’re gny struggle to score goals for the remainder of the campaign. 1 shot on target that i cant even remember is worrying. No clear cut chances being created which is the most worrying. Most of the players apart from a couple look like they’re half arsing it out there.
Disappointing it was. This match was at least drawable. Braga were – as you correctly say – nothing out of the ordinary and ran a bit out of steam towards the end. But – again we had so very little to offer in the final third and were disappointingly harmless in front of goal. We never troubled or even tested their goalkeeper in those 90+ minutes. I only remember Sakala blasting over from just inside the box in the first half. The good thing is we are only 1:0 down and can turn things round next Thursday at home.
Don’t agree with Fashion Jr.In my opiniom he wasn’t as good as you rated him.He missed two huge chances ro score and his hold up play was hopeless and really annoyed me.Sure he had to fill Alfredo boots but if he even played different position he has should score at least one.
Tom Sakala isnt a Target Man striker tht can hold up and bring others into play. Hes better running in behind or beating a man out wide. Roofe isnt either hes more if a wide man tht can come inside and feed off scraps. We only have Morelos and Itten as proper Strikers and 1 is injured and 1 is guff just now. Hence why we’re in the position we’re in.
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